The process flow for manufacturing PCBAs including pin-through-hole (PTH) components includes, among other steps, PTH component placement and wave soldering, wherein the circuit board being manufactured is passed through a wave soldering machine that exposes the underside of the circuit board to an upwelling, e.g., a standing wave, of molten solder such that solder is applied to permanently connect the PTH components to the circuit board.
Wave solder pallets are utilized during wave soldering to support the circuit board being manufactured. However, current wave solder pallets are subject to wear, which may result in heath and performance issues, and are unable to be manufactured with complex geometries, which limits the ability of these current wave solder pallets to control solder flow. Without the ability to control solder flow, issues such as solder clogging, too fast or too slow solder flow, and/or uneven solder flow may result.
It would therefore be desirable to reduce wear-related health and performance issues exhibited by current wave solder pallets, and to have the ability to form complex geometries on and/or within wave solder pallets to enable optimization of solder flow, thus ensuring that appropriate connections are reliably made.